6 dead chickens, 6 bloody machetes found at cemetery

Six dead chickens, six bloody machetes and one injured chicken were recovered Thursday from two sections of a Linden cemetery where police also found blood on two tombstones.
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LINDEN – Six dead chickens, six bloody machetes and one injured chicken were recovered Thursday from two sections of a Route 1 cemetery where police also found blood on two tombstones.

Police responded to Rosehill Cemetery, located off Route 1 and 9, at about 5 p.m. Lt. Jeff Clark said two dead chickens were found in Section 50 of the cemetery, along with an injured chicken found hobbling around. Three machetes tainted with blood were recovered in that section and police found blood on one tombstone.

In Section 38, police found four more dead chickens, and three machetes with blood on them. Blood also was found on one tombstone.

Clark said cemetery personnel said the tombstones were not damaged because the blood can be washed off.

Linden animal control officers removed the dead chickens and the injured chicken. Police confiscated the machetes.

Police are investigating to determine if the chickens and machetes were used for some type of religious or gang-related ritual.

This isn’t the first time Central Jersey police have recovered animal remains in an unusual location.

Two years ago, a brown cardboard box containing a dead chicken, still with its brown feathers, along with a bizarre mixture of orange and apple wedges, cooked potatoes, popcorn, broken white and red candles and quarters, was found on the side of the road in Tewksbury.

The concoction rested on a bed of paper towels placed inside a packing box labeled for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes — a brand famously recognized by its mascot, “Cornelius,” a green rooster.

Tewksbury police believed that the box might have been part of a ritual in Santeria, a Latin American religion that grew out of the colonial slave trade.